This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A variety of portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones, digital music players, laptop computers, personal data assistants, etc. are available that are capable of playing audio files stored in the device. In particular, modern digital music players and cellular telephones are typically capable of storing and playing audio files. Unfortunately, the speakers on these devices are typically small due to the size and power constraints imposed on portable devices. These small speakers are incapable of producing the loud, high-quality audio that many consumers demand. As a result, consumers often couple such portable electronic devices to external speaker assemblies in an effort to increase the volume and/or quality of the sound produced by the portable electronic device.
Conventional speaker assemblies typically include an attenuation knob that controls volume through a potentiometer. The potentiometer increases or reduces the volume of sound coming from the speaker depending on the direction that the attenuation knob is turned.
While conventional knobs associated with speaker assemblies adequately control the volume of sound produced by the speaker assembly, knobs typically protrude from a surface of the speaker assembly and, as a result, are easily damaged. Further, such knobs often reduce the overall appearance and aesthetics of the speaker assembly.